PHILOPGEMEN AND THE FALL
OF SPARTA.

Tus history of Greece may well seem remarkable
to modern readers, since it brings us in contact with
conditions which have ceased to exist anywhere upon
the earth. To gain some idea of its character, we
should have to imagine each of the counties of one
of our American States to be an independent nation,
with its separate government, finances, and history,
its treaties of peace and declarations of war, and
its frequent fierce conflicts with some neighboring
county. Hach of these counties would have its cen-
tral city, surrounded by high walls, and its citi-
zens ready at any moment to take arms against
some other city and march to battle against foes of
their own race and blood. In some cases a single
county would have three or four cities, each hostile to
the others, like the cities of Thebes, Platea, Thespia,
and Orchomenos, in Beotia; standing ready, like
fierce dogs each in its separate kennel, to fall upon
one another with teeth and claws. It may further
be said that of the population of these counties five
out of every six were slaves, and that these slaves
were white men, most of them of Greek descent.
The general custom in those days was either to slay
prisoners in cold blood, or sell them to spend the
remainder of their lives in slavery.

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